Where the sun doesn’t rise

Winter starts tomorrow. The days will be getting longer in Denver after the Dec. 21 9:49 p.m. solstice (sunrise 7:18 a.m., sunset 4:39 p.m.). That’s a 9 hour, 21 minute day – five hours and 38 minutes shorter than during the June solstice. Our northern hemisphere has reached its maximum tilt away from the sun.

Here are a few photos I took in early January 2015 in places where the sun barely rises (West Fjords, Iceland) or does not rise at all during polar night (Lyngen Alps, Norway). The West Fjords area, the part of Iceland closest to Greenland, has an interesting history including sorcery and persecution of accused sorcerers during the Middle Ages. Nice place with fishing, hearty smooth-riding small horses, hot springs and arctic foxes.

There’s no direct sun at all inside the Arctic Circle (latitude 69.8) in the Lyngen Alps mountains, which jut above fiords north of where Norway meets Finland. The sun rolls just below the horizon giving two to three hours of soft light – blue, deep purple. Dog-sledders and ice climbers here are among the best.